Henna The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Hello, hello, Hello!

Now if you don't know by now, I'm a die hard fan of henna. I've used this wonderful plant on my locs, and it is a regular part of my loose hair maintenance now. My hair loves henna and I just think it's the bees knees but it's not a perfect product and if you've gone back and forth on whether to try henna I thought I'd leave you with some food for thought, so  here we go:

Pros:
A natural plant based dye
A great strengthening conditioner for the hair which means less breakage
Balance hair porosity
Thickens the hair
Less shedding
Can cover gray hair
easy to mix together and can be customized to your liking
Any leftovers can be saved (in your freezer) for later use
*Might Loosen your curl Pattern

Cons:
Time consuming
Can be very messy
Has a hay like odor that can linger for a few days
Is permanent color
Makes the penetration of man made chemical dyes extremely difficult to color  previously hennaed hair
Must read labels very carefully so that you're not purchasing henna that has been mixed with metallic salts or other toxic chemicals
*Might Loosen your curl Pattern
*For some the loosening of your curl pattern may be seen as a positive or a negative.

So now you've had some food for thought, here are my two cents. I started using henna for the gentle color I reaped and continued using henna when I saw how strong and thick my hair was with using henna. Is it a tedious, messy process? Yes but one I find worth it because of the all benefits my hair reaps. Now to address that odor problem, I've found that mixing in some orange peel powder (great for the hair), cinnamon or essential oils greatly masks or eliminates the odor which to be honest doesn't really bother me (but that's me). And as for the loosening of the curl pattern on my kinky, coily hair I haven't experienced this but perhaps someone with fine, thin hair or a looser curl pattern might experience this. Hope with this information you are armed to make an informative decision on whether to henna or not to henna.

Cheers:)